The current release contains 13 titles, with approximately 85,000 pages. Accessible titles include the East African Standard, a prominent English-language newspaper in East Africa in the early 20th century; Imvo Zabantsundu, the first newspaper in South Africa owned and controlled by Africans; and Buluwayo Chronicle, one of the earliest press publications in what is now known as Zimbabwe.

Additional content will be added on a monthly basis. CRL is targeting 400,000 pages for this module, with more than 40 fully searchable newspapers.

Access and Pricing

African Newspapers is currently accessible to Charter Participants and subscribing members. To access the collection, please visit your library’s homepage for Readex products and click on World Newspaper Archive, or visit the page directly.

CRL member access

For CRL libraries who elect to invest in the ongoing digitization of resources, CRL will charge a one-time payment for access, plus ongoing maintenance fees on an annual basis. The fees are scaled to each participant’s library materials expenditures. Payment schedules are designed to minimize the impact on library acquisition budgets. Please see the main WNA page for more information on Access and Pricing.

CRL and its partners are committed to providing sustainable access to a rich and diverse set of international scholarly resources. CRL will continue to maintain the microfilm copies of all WNA papers as well, and make them available to the community as a regular benefit of CRL membership.